Smoke screen technology offered as answer to school shootings

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 01:59

WARNING - The following story includes footage of flashing strobe lights that some viewers may find disturbing.Feb. 19 - A British company is offering what it says is a practical solution to America's problem with gun violence in schools. The company - Concept Smoke Screen - believes their smoke generating device, in conjunction with strobe lights and white noise, would drive any potential gunman out of the classroom and save lives. Jim Drury watched a demonstration.

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A British company believes this could be the answer to the tragedy of school shootings.
By obscuring the view of an armed intruder, the company - Concept Smokescreen - says lives can be saved.
SOUNDBITE (English) MATT GILMARTIN, SALES DIRECTOR, CONCEPT SMOKESCREEN, STANDING BESIDE SMOKESCREEN DEVICE, SAYING:
"This is a smokescreen generator. In the event of an activation it will produce vast clouds of visually obscuring and confrontational smoke from this nozzle here."
Matt Gilmartin is the company's sales director. He's suggesting schools put a Security Smoke unit in each of their classrooms.
SOUNDBITE) (English) MATT GILMARTIN, SALES DIRECTOR, CONCEPT SMOKESCREEN, SAYING:
"How would it stop a gunman? Well, one of the things it's doing is removing his ability to target things, which is very very important. It's taking away that ability to aim a gun at something and pull the trigger. People worry about them just spraying blindly but typically, in our experience, we've used this in anti-raid situations on a number of occasions where armed perpetrators have come to do harm, where we've used security smoke it's disarmed the situation and driven them away, which is the aim of the game."
The technology has been used inside bank vaults and stores for years. It creates clouds of thermally-generated non-toxic smoke. Technical director Trevor Dunnington says it's environmentally safe but extremely effective, especially when combined with strobe lighting and ear-piercing white noise.
UPSOT: WHITE NOISE SIREN
SOUNDBITE (English) TREVOR DUNNINGTON, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, CONCEPT SMOKESCREEN, SAYING:
"Smoke, security smoke, in conjunction with powerful strobes and also in conjunction with white noise generators can actually make an environment that is just so unpleasant to be in that it just pushes anyone away."
The massacre of 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut last December has revived the contentious debate over gun control in the United States.
With many Americans unwilling to give up their weapons, Concept Smokescreen believes their technology offers a viable alternative and an effective layer of security in America's schools.